


Promise

by bohemiantea



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age - Various Authors
Genre: Adoption, Book: Dragon Age - The Calling, Gen, The Blight (Dragon Age), Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 21:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bohemiantea/pseuds/bohemiantea
Summary: Palentine prompt: "Duncan & Fiona, somewhere in Thedas, after The Calling and before Alistair’s birth. Wildcard: cheese."Duncan is summoned back to Weisshaupt for a big surprise.





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [allisondraste](https://archiveofourown.org/users/allisondraste/gifts).



It had been months since Duncan had seen Fiona. The day he left Weisshaupt to return to Ferelden, she had been recovering from the ravages of the Architect’s Blight-enhancing brooch. She’d been quiet the whole trip from Ferelden to Weisshaupt, and although it was partly due to how sick she’d become, he also knew it was from leaving Maric behind. It hadn’t been difficult to see they’d bonded more closely than a simple dalliance, but even he knew that kings and elves just weren’t meant to be and so he’d never brought it up.

Still, the darkness in Fiona’s veins had begun noticeably receding, so she’d waved goodbye to Duncan with the first note of hope he’d ever seen in her eyes. The thought had consoled him on his return trip to Ferelden to begin the hard work of rebuilding the newly reinstated order there. Fiona, if she really was recovering, was experiencing a miracle that Weisshaupt would want to fully investigate before they released her back to Ferelden and the Architect’s trail. They would inevitably meet up again, as healthy as either of them would ever be.

When Duncan received a letter from her five months later, asking him to return with all possible speed to Weisshaupt and with no explanation, he feared the worst. Had she begun sickening again? What if she really was about to go on her Calling? After all they’d been through together, even in such a short span of time, he couldn’t let her do it alone.

Duncan sped to Weisshaupt as if he’d been chased by all the demons of the Fade. He begged the stablehands to see to his mount for him and he ran, looking for her, still dirty, sweaty, and haggard from the trials of the Anderfels.

“Duncan! Hello,” Fiona greeted him, looking up in surprise from stitching some clothing. She sat on her bed with a plate of fruit and cheese nearby. She was…healthy. Skin clear, no dark veins, but some tired circles around her eyes. She was in fact glowing with health and – he glanced down to her hands, which dropped to her lap – gravid.

“Hello,” he said, and stopped, staring.

“I can explain, or try to,” Fiona said, wryly.

“No, no,” he stammered, putting his hands up, “I’m sure some details I don’t want to know.”

She grimaced and threw her sewing scraps at him.

“Please sit down, I know I didn’t explain anything in my letter and I am sorry for the necessity,” she said, then her expression softened to a slight smile. “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you as well. I was afraid I was needed to accompany you on your Calling,” he said with an answering smile. “I’m glad that’s not the case, but…” He gestured at her belly. “How? Is it safe?” He fumbled for a chair.

“’It’, as far as the healers can tell, is perfectly fine. A little large for me,” Fiona said, gently rubbing at her rounded abdomen, “but good. And… not tainted. As far as anyone with good senses can tell.”

Duncan knew she meant the way Grey Wardens could sense each other, and he blinked, stunned. Come to think of it, he’d had trouble finding her when he arrived, so that meant…

“You and the baby. Both of you,” he said, breaking into a large, ecstatic grin. “Do you know what this means?”

At that Fiona’s smile faded. “Yes, I do.”

“Why doesn’t this make you happy? If you’re not Tainted any longer, you get to have a normal life. You’re free,” he blurted.

She reached out a hand and patted his knee.

“Duncan,” she said patiently. “I’m an elf and a mage. I am never free.”

“Right,” he said roughly. He had forgotten. She’d simply become his friend and the rest had faded in importance to him. “So. What will you do now?”

“Right now, my focus is on this child. My future is sealed: either I will be a Warden or I will be cast back to the Circle of Magi. I will have no say in the First Warden’s decision. All I can do is see to the decisions I am allowed to make,” Fiona said, fingering the sewing in her lap. Belatedly he noticed it was a child’s swaddling. “And that is why you are here.”

He frowned and cocked his head to one side.

“I confess I don’t understand. How can I help?”

“First of all, I need a friend,” she said. “And secondly, I hope you will make me a promise.”

“Anything.” He sat forward and took her hand, squeezing it.

“Whatever happens to us, whatever happens to this child, promise they don’t end up like Maric,” she said, searching his face earnestly and biting her lip. “They deserve so much better than either of us got.”

Duncan’s throat closed. Fiona was giving up the child. This, too, wasn’t difficult to see. He hoped that maybe he could persuade her to change her mind, but she was stubborn, and she was also right. If either of this child’s parents were ever known, they would never be free and they deserved better than that.

“I promise,” he said. “On my life.”


End file.
